Sahiba: Plans to diversify beyond women’s ethnic wear in future

Women’s ethnic wear brand Sahiba’s mantra is to provide ‘affordable designer fashion’ to women in all segments of the market. Yashiki Gumber, Director, Sahiba, attributes the convenience and comfort level of women’s ethnic wear in India as the major reason that this segment still holds a major chunk of the apparel industry market. “With about a 15 per cent CAGR, the industry has a lot to bank on in the coming years,” he says.

Festivals, wedding good for ethnic business

Gamber points out “Post June, the country sees the best of its essence in the festivals and weddings season. It’s that part of the year that gives women in India enough reasons to dress up, correspondingly we expect demand for more festive wear parallel to the winter wear collections in the coming months.” Not willing to fathom a guess about the size of unorganized market Gamber says, “Textiles being among the most unorganised sector of the country, it is uncertain to define market share. The kind of sales figures and collections rolled out give us enough data to analyse growth trajectories in terms of expanding our markets.” The brand tries to roll out varied collections every month to cater to the mass segment. It’s also looking to tying up with designers and brands while sticking to its mantra of providing ‘affordable designer fashion’ to women in all segments of the market.

Gamber says some the key growth drivers in women’s ethnic wear segment are increasing participation of women in workforce; acceptance of ethnic wear as fusion trends among young girls; comfort and ease of wearing ethnic; increasing disposable income; entry of more brands in ethnic wear segments, etc. Gamber says, “Textiles and designer garments manufacturers are like brothers of same mother while serving different set of clientele. Designers deal with high end ready to wear segment which is virgin for textiles. We focus more on providing SKDs, with an ease to get it stitched as per personal requirements. The prêt-à-porter lines from designer provide little competition, unless the brand caters to organised sector of ethnic fashion.”

Gamber feels the industry can absorb a lot more competition. “At the macro level, fashion is doing well. To match up with competition, any brand has to be on their toes to ensure they provide the best collections at the best possible prices.” Sahiba has tie ups with best designers is to provide designer fashion label at affordable prices. “We aren’t really planning to focus on premium segment. Rather, the reason our company does these tie ups is to provide designer fashion label at affordable prices for women who wish to have a designer label in their wardrobe, but cannot due the high prices.”

In the future the brand is looking at diversification which is the key to success in any industry. “Taking that as our mantra, we would want to enter untapped markets of garmenting and soon you might to see a lot of western wear products from Sahiba. We aim to cater to all fashion needs of a woman and wish to offer one step solution to any woman who steps under our umbrella. Further, we are closely looking at national and international tie ups with top notch designers.”